In what seems like a fruitless exercise, the NFL will conduct a hearing today between the Jets and Bill Belichick to discuss the validity of Belichick’s contract and the grievance the former Jets’ defensive coordinator filed last week.

The meeting, which will include Bill Parcells, Jets’ president Steve Gutman, Belichick and his Cleveland-based agent, Neil Cornrich, commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Jeff Pash, the NFL’s legal counsel, is set for 9:30 a.m. at a law firm in Times Square.

If we’re all fortunate, it won’t take long for the ball to drop quickly and this formality to be over with, particularly since the NFL already has ruled the contract Belichick is trying to wriggle out of is ironclad.

The day Belichick resigned as the Jets’ head coach for a day with three years remaining on his contract, the NFL ruled no team other than the Jets could speak to Belichick about employment.

What will have changed on that stance by the league after the hearing, which could extend unmercifully into tomorrow if business is not finished today, is unclear.

Gutman and the Jets have contended that Belichick’s contract was rewritten five times since he first came to the Jets to acquiesce his needs, the last time reportedly about 10 months ago.

The hearing will be the first time the Belichick is in the same room with Gutman since his shocking resignation speech blindsided the Jets’ president and compelled Gutman to loosely characterize Belichick as some sort of unstable individual dealing with “inner turmoil.”

Gutman that day characterized Belichick as someone “we should have some feelings of sorrow and regret for … as he’s obviously in some turmoil and I have to wish him the best with whatever the future holds for him.”

The best for Belichick would be if the NFL somehow agreed with him and ruled his contract no longer is valid because it was signed with Leon Hess and now the team is owned by Robert Wood Johnson IV. That, however, is unlikely to happen.

The most likely scenario is that Tagliabue eventually will rule that if Belichick wants to coach elsewhere, the team that hires him must pay the Jets compensation.

In New England, where the Patriots are waiting with bated breath to bring in Belichick, owner Robert Kraft and his people have been floating the notion they’re prepared to pay a second-round draft pick or maybe a second- and third-rounder.

The Jets, who gave up a No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 to the Patriots to get Parcells out of the final year of his contract, are certain to be gunning for at least a No. 1 and then some.

As a smokescreen and perhaps to further leverage Belichick when he gets out of his contract, Cornrich has been telling people that Belichick is interested in interviewing for the vacant Green Bay job.

Look for this thing to drag out into next week and for Belichick to be coaching New England next season after the Patriots deliver compensation to the Jets.